I'm that Curtis Jobling, writer and illustrator. You may know me as designer of "Bob the Builder" (sorry) and creator of "Raa Raa the Noisy Lion" and "Frankenstein's Cat". I'm also the author of the "Wereworld" series of fantasy horror novels and the darkly comic YA thriller "Haunt". Published by Puffin, Penguin US, Simon & Schuster and Egmont around the world.

Friday, February 01, 2008

FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT premiering Monday 4th February, CBBC, 6pm!

"FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT, FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT!"

"HE'S A MONSTER!"

"A TWIT!"

"I'M A CAT FROM A KIT!"

"AND YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE HIM TO BITS!"

Well, it's here at long last. It's been a long, long road from the first doodles and scribbles I penned on a train journey from Warrington to London Euston in 2000. Since then the Cat was picked up as a picture book by Hodder, optioned as a short film by Mackinnon & Saunders, developed into a 2D flash animated series and now finally appears on Television next week. Along the way characters have been discarded (the Butler, the Cook) and other have been added or developed (Lottie, Egora, Heidi and the Doctor). We've a large cast of colourful, and quite mad, characters populating the village of Oddsburg and it's surrounding wilderness, so I can only hope now that the show is well received by its audience (that's you, that is!)

Big thanks go to all the production teams and broadcasters who've worked on the show, at Mackinnon & Saunders, Kayenta Production, BBC, CCI, 4:21, and A Productions. Special thanks go to Jackie Edwards, Sara Mullock and Thierry Rivard (producers on the show), Alan Gilbey (head writer and script editor) and Raoul and Jane Davies (directors) for helping make such lovely animated shenanigans. And big man love to Pete (Saunders) and Ian (Mackinnon) for believing in my stinky cat in the first place and taking a big ol' punt on it. Big man love hugs to the writers - Ian Carney, Dave Ingham, Myles McLeod, Darren Jones, Lee Pressman and Joel Jessop. Suffice to say the voice artists (Joe P, Keith Wickham, Alex Kelly, Teresa Gallagher and Jimmy Hibbert, who also pitched in with a script!) have done a wonderful job of breathing life into the cast, and I owe them a drink or four...

Lordy, that sounds like an acceptance speech. I'd best go and accept a banana from the fruit bowl as that's all I'll be receiving for the forseeable!

Off on the road this coming week, appearing at Animex Festival of Animation from Wednesday through Friday. I'll be doing a character design workshop on the Wednesday and on the Friday, accompanied by Jackie Edwards, we'll be doing a talk about The Anatomy Of Frankenstein's Cat. It promises to be a hoot!

Some lovely pieces ther Mr Bling, and have to agree with Ciaranwith regards to the village/mountain vista. Are these production back grounds, or mood pieces you provided?Well, off to set the sky plus now.

Argh! Missed it on Monday. I trust it'll be repeated throughout the week. Good luck, Mr Bling (although I don't think you'll need it). I heard Joe Pasquale was on the Steve Wright show the other week talking about it.

Jonathon you can catch the episodes on BBC's i-player here here just search the CBBC section on there ! They keep them posted for a bout 5 days or so, or you can download them and watch them for a bit longer if you like !!!!

Worth the wait to see the series. Enjoyed the first the super large zits and then the floating brians. Mad but real fun. It is really good to see the visual style and the paintly quality from the book being retained.

Fan-jelly-tastic! What a super series you've developed - a real breath of fresh air to see a "proper" cartoon nowadays! Well done indeed. I espicialy thought "Heidi and Shriek" was a riot - can't wait to see this series on DVD. :D

BTW, so you know, I've noticed that "Let's Make Friends" hasn't credited the writer...

Bangazee - cheers for the nice words and supportive comments on the Cat, mate :-)

Jonathan - no explanation necessary matey ;-)

Dragonhead - shall let you know when the US broadcaster is confirmed

Jim - Exeter was great, very good festival, heartily recommend it!

Glazey - thanks mucker, hope your kids are all watching it

Christopher - cheers bud, I like the mention of a "proper" cartoon (although to be honest it's made in flash!) Interestingly a lot of the animators on the show are drawn animators by trade so they've used the Flash system in a drawn stylee. As for LETS MAKE FRIENDS I hadn't noticed that, shall have to look into it.

About Me

Born in Blackpool and raised in Warrington. Designer and creator of various animated shows including BOB THE BUILDER, FRANKENSTEIN'S CAT and RAA RAA THE NOISY LION. Author of the WEREWORLD series, HAUNT, WORLD OF WARRIORS and MAX HELSING novels.